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All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked *, which may be consulted in the Library.

All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked *, which may be consulted in the Library.

For the first time since this series of annual reviews of the literature of special librarianship and information work began, the authorship has changed hands. It is fitting to pay tribute to the skill with which Mr J. Bird has compiled this review each year and to express the hope that the same standards of selectivity and pragmatic appraisal set by Mr Bird will be maintained. The aim of the survey remains unchanged: to bring to the notice of librarians, particularly those in the smaller organizations, the more significant and practically useful books, pamphlets, and articles which appeared during the past year, or, more strictly, were received in the Aslib library during the past year. Experience of the types of inquiry most frequently received in the Aslib library has been particularly useful in determining the type of publication that could most profitably be included. As has been stressed in previous years, the survey is not intended to be used as a bibliographical tool, since this purpose is adequately served by other existing services, but rather as a guide to current reading.

To what extent do special librarians and information workers read the literature of their own profession? What use do they make of it? Which journals do they read? Which books do they consult?

Chemical Abstracts, about to enter its fiftieth year, is at a turning point. Heretofore this journal has been produced without the expectation that subscription income would always meet expenses. Many times this income has been insufficient. Subsidies have balanced budgets. Subscribers have received a bargain. That Chemical Abstracts should thoroughly report and record each year's new chemical information has always been recognized. With adherence to this purpose, Chemical Abstracts has not been curtailed for lack of self‐earned income.

All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked *, which may be consulted in the Library.

The Aslib Winter Meetings in London for the session 1954/55 started off with a provocative talk by Mr. H. Stanley Hyland on 14th October, under the Chairmanship of Mr. C. W. Hanson. Mr. Hyland has had the advantage of knowing libraries from both sides of the counter. He has had wide experience as a librarian but, giving his talk the title of ‘Libraries—by a renegade’, he chose on this occasion to speak primarily as a journalist and a library‐user. His talk is reported in the November, 1954, issue of Aslib Information.

The Annual Report of the National Central Library for the year ending 29 February, 1948, records substantial increase in its normal services as well as important expansion of its range of activities. The stock of the Library, reduced by enemy action in 1941 from 176,961 to 72,612, has now risen to 111,439—an increase in 1947–48 of 5,465 books, of which 4,430 were obtained by purchase. The total issues of books, numbering 84,889, show an increase of 28·6 per cent. over those of the previous year, and of 44 per cent. over the last pre‐war year. They include 8,655 books and periodicals supplied to university libraries, 6,581 to special ‘outlier’ libraries, 7,823 to Government departments and research and industrial organizations, and 12,652 to adult education classes. In addition, the Scottish and Irish Central Libraries issued 15,547 and 13,082 books respectively to all types of libraries.

Amalgamation with the British Society for International Bibliography, agreed in principle in 1947, was accomplished de facto as from 1 January, 1948. The legal side, however, has taken longer than was anticipated, though the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the new body have been accepted by the Board of Trade and it is hoped that the formalities will be completed during 1948. Until these have taken place the finances of the two organisations have had to be kept separate, although their activities have been controlled as one organization under a joint Council. It is expected that the first Annual General Meeting of the new Aslib will be held about April, 1949, when the whole present Council will resign and a new Council will be elected.

The aim of this project was to devise and put into practice a system that would permit publication of an index (the Index Medicus) of greater coverage, currency, and ease of use than the previous Current List of Medical Literature, published by the National Library of Medicine. The latter was the largest indexing service of a specialized subject anywhere in the world, 1,600 journals being indexed regularly every month. Further expansion of the Current List was impossible without considerably speeding up the collating and numbering of the entries for each issue and the hand‐mounting of all entry slips on page‐boards to be sent to the printers. These operations could not begin until all the material for a month's issue had been collected and a twenty‐four‐hour timetable for these processes had already been introduced to reduce the delay to the minimum. Mechanization was clearly necessary.